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Heroes of the Storm: Blizzard Confirms Pro-Level Competition Near Launch
BMunchausen
Staff WriterMMORPG.COM Staff Posts: 400
Today in an email to theScore, Mike Morhaime (Blizzard CEO and co-founder)confirmed the company's intentions to take Heroes of the Storm into the professional eSports circuit saying:
“Our ultimate goal is to establish a pro structure for Heroes competition, but with the game in closed beta, it’s still too early to discuss what form that might ultimately take. That said, we do have plans for kicking off pro-level competition around the game’s launch, and we’re looking forward to talking more about that soon."
Though would-be HotS competitors will have to wait to hear specific details about the program, they can currently check out events held by ESL and Major League Gaming as well as TeSPA's "Heroes of the Dorm." The latter was broadcast via ESPN2 during prime time which as Morhaime put it, "...allowed us to reach a new audience who might have otherwise never tuned in to an eSports event."
Heroes of the Storm is set for a June 2 release. Click here to read the full report on Blizzard's pro league.
Comments
blizzard is so freakishly obsessed with getting non-gamers into esports
the whole vibe throughout heroes of the dorm was 'Please like us! I swear we're interesting like real sports! Now allow us a moment to explain what a level up is...'
average ESPN viewers don't care. even if they seem interested, it's usually mock interest
just like the casual-ization of all their games recently, they've been focusing on expanding to non-gamers rather than focusing on their real audience. so disappointing from one of the best gaming companies
My opinion is my own. I respect all other opinions and views equally, but keep in mind that my opinion will always be the best for me. That's why it's my opinion.
Too busy having fun with it to pay attention to the negatives.
Because having fun is absolutely all that matters in these games.
I'm a MUDder. I play MUDs.
Current: Dragonrealms
they give me a cd key for try and removed the game after 2 days because it was easy and boring
im a retired sc2 pro so i got pretty much the cd key in the very early stage of the game but it was lacking alot for be a esport, the game realy easy and not realy complex so im having a hard time understand how a pro will show skill and be better that the average guy who play each day.
we will see and im going try the game again for sure and im not going say im who in sc2
....yet, it will almost certainly overtake Dota2, and maybe even approach LoL numbers....Hearthstone has 11 million player for christ sake, and there are a lot more moba players than TCGers.
I think the gameplay of HOTS is much more polished than DOTA2. But HoTS lacks what is required to be popular on the esport front.
Hearthstone has 30 million the last time I checked.
If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. - Carl Sagan
More simplistic definitely, more polished, hardly. DOTA2 has had years of fine tuning, balancing, and updates on HotS. It's a much more strategic and complex game (by far). There's a reason it's still one of the top esports games, even though it's not the most popular MOBA anymore.
What HotS is doing is basically a 180 from what DOTA established. They're going for accessibility over gameplay. In that regard, they've succeeded. The problem is (and a lot of people forget this), MOBAs are first and foremost games of strategy. The core of MOBAs lies in tactical gameplay and decision-making. They came from RTS after all.
What's happened is that most players only want to focus on the action (fighting) and ignore all the tactics (it's too 'hard', requires too much thought), and thus we have HotS.
The problem is, it's going to be hard to really have an interesting eSport w/ HotS, considering how shallow the gameplay is. I may not like playing LoL all that much, but the pro games are a hellova lot more entertaining than HotS to watch, same goes for DoTA2, and SMITE is slowly getting there. I just don't see what niche Blizzard is looking to fill when it comes to esports. They have Starcraft 2 still, If they want to expand they need to make more games of that caliber.
The thing is: if you are already in a Moba, there are rarely reasons to switch. Mobas take a lot of effort to become somewhat good with, since there is so much to learn. Then add money you spent in a Moba as another factor, and you are even less motivated to switch.
So, I played LoL a long time ago, tried HoN when it was new, but I've been playing DOTA2 most of the time. Why should I switch to HotS? The mere fact that I can't play any hero I want to from the start makes the game a bit unbalanced, since, to know a hero really well, you have to have played that hero. But that doesn't work in HotS unless you spend money, unlike DOTA2, where you can play all heroes from the start. That is then already a small pay2win factor. You spend money to access all heroes, you can play all heroes that way, thus know them better than people who do not have access to them, and because of that a higher chance of winning.
Granted, that by itself of course doesn't decide who wins, but it's the little things that add up. And if such tiny imbalances don't exist in DOTA2, HotS really has to offer a lot to make me switch.
Let's play Fallen Earth (blind, 300 episodes)
Let's play Guild Wars 2 (blind, 45 episodes)
Yep, they should have just left the MOBA stuff alone.. No one has been able to successfully break into this E-Sport savvy genre after the behemoths took their seats at the top, League and Dota2.. Now, don't get me wrong, Blizzard has a knack for making the perfect casual games and I have little doubt that this one will make some noise... I personally really like and enjoy everything about HoTS.. But I play for fun, not as an aspiring career choice..
I could totally see why a career hopeful would find the game lacking though, especially when the droves of people who don't look, act, and carry themselves as MLG Pro's start establishing themselves as powerhouses along those who we typically see in those positions (the "casual" crowd).. It's like how people look at Call of Duty now.. You cannot be considered a "pro" call of duty player because call of duty is now considered a casual game. No matter what they do with HoTS, the established pros have already determined that it is a casual game..
yeah being on mobiles helped , kinda like candy crush got 500M of downlods loong time ago :P
Blizzard seems to be trying to do too much.
You can't make a game be casual and be a successful e-sport. Heathstone is actually a good indication of this. They introduced a large RNG component with the GvG expansion and the e-sport scene for that game stopped growing. No pro gamers are going to invest time and energy into a game where the winner is determined by randomness and not skill.
Heroes of the Storm just doesn't have enough to it to be a successful e-sport. Dota2 and LoL have huge skill barriers. You can pick up a top 10 plays video for either game and be blown away by the level of competition, much like you see from a professional CS:GO player. You pickup a top 10 video for Heroes of the Storm and your immediate reaction is 'meh, I could do that'. No one is going to watch players that are on the same skill level as them much like no one watches high school level tennis. Again, I have to point to Hearthstone. Their top streamers like Kripp, Trump and Reynad all sell their personalities on the stream, that's what makes them popular. Take them away from Hearthstone and they're still popular. Meanwhile the best HS players like Lifecoach, Guardsman Bob, and Kolento don't get very many viewers because of their somewhat dull personalities.
Heroes of the Storm really has nothing to offer the competitive e-sport scene. Dota2 and LoL are better games for that style and there are no interesting streamers covering the game because the play is so simple that there isn't really much to talk about or form opinions on or really have any way to project your personality into it. It's a casual MOBA that will attract a huge player audience and make Blizzard tons of money but an e-sport it will not be.
ACTUALLY based off the earnings report, Hearthstone has 30 million. HOTS has the 11 million, and thats just for BETA SIGNUPS
hots will be HUGE, it's just the e-sports scene that will most likely be lame. the koreans might be able to salvage that but i doubt it with the popularity of league right now
league was made for people who thought dota was too hard, and now hots is for people who think league is too hard. there's a big market of people who want to get into mobas without having to do any thinking, and hots is made for that
This was how I thought it would be myself, until I played it up until max level during Alpha and Beta. Now I place the game in middle difficulty -- harder than LoL and less punishing than Dota.
This is mainly due to the inability to carry people in HoTs. Everyone has to be 100% on their skillshots, their knowledge of the maps (of which I hear there is supposed to be 10 of them at launch), etc. In LoL, your team could be as strong as your best player, where as in HotS it is as strong as your weakest. There is a high emphasis on team battles from the start, as they took out farming / laning (for the most part) to allow focus on objectives and team fights within seconds.
I'll be specific. DOTA2 has a crappy interface and hero response. That part of the game is unpolished compared with LOL and HoTS. It was shocking when I first tried DOTA2 as I expect a lot from Valve.
HoTS is indeed far too simplistic to be a legit eSport unless Blizzard puts up massive cash prizes.
HoTS is likely going to be the second most played MOBA though and highly profitable. They'd need to add items and make other serious changes before being eSport ready though.
Good point. We wont really know how solid the meta and e-sports scene will be until after release, and I hope it becomes something because I do really enjoy the game a lot.